


A Thousand Years Dead

by Talyesin



Series: Aftermath on Finite Earths [15]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 17:18:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15441987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talyesin/pseuds/Talyesin





	A Thousand Years Dead

Earth-One  
Metropolis, 2996

"Garth?"

Imra Ardeen-Ranzz stepped into the study she shared with her husband. He was seated in his habitual sensochair, submerging his consciousness into the senseweb database. Gently, she sent a tendril of telepathic thoughtwave out to touch his own mind briefly, making him aware of her presence in realspace.

At an unspoken mental command, the sensochair's senseweb probes retracted, snakelike, away from Garth's head. Long wavy red hair beginning to show the signs of grey hid the probes for the most part, but when they retracted into the sensochair's headrest, they shone silver-white in the low light of the dimly lit study.

"Lights," Garth said, smiling at his beautiful blonde wife. He stretched as the lights in the study slowly brightened, the folds of his purple-blue robe falling away from his bare arms - one thickly muscled, covered with freckles and fine ginger hairs, the other sleekly artificial, an almost-perfect duplicate of the arm he'd lost so many years ago.

"Lost in space?" Imra joked.

"Not exactly. Looking for news about ... Looking for news."

Imra didn't require the use of her telepathic abilities to know Garth was still trying to find any sign of his brother Mekt, or any of the Legion of Super-Villains. They'd completely disappeared ten years previous, when the Crisis had shaken the entire multiverse. And though Mekt had, time and again, tried to kill their teammates, their family, and even Garth himself, Imra knew that to Garth, Mekt was family... and that was all that mattered.

She went to her husband and sat in his lap.

"The boys?" Garth asked, grinning mischeviously, the brash and headstrong youth he'd been shining through the face of the sensible man he'd become.

Fast asleep, Imra sent telepathically.

He reached up with his biological arm - always that one, never the cybernetic replacement he'd worn since before their marriage - and caressed her cheek, then pulled her face close to his and kissed her lovingly.

Imra recoiled as if shocked, a look of concern crossing her face. "Something's wrong."

They immediately stood and went to the computer console on the wall of the study, waiting for the call to come. 

They didn't wait long. Chuck Taine's round face soon appeared in the viewscreen. "Garth. Imra. Sorry to disturb you, but-"

"What is it, Chuck?" Garth asked.

"One of the time bubbles is missing."

The two founding Legionnaires shared a look of stunned dismay. "What do you mean, missing?" Imra asked.

"There was a break-in fifteen minutes ago," Chuck explained, and his normally jocular face was replaced by video footage of a woman, dressed head-to-toe in black, face obscured by a mask, walking calmly up to one of the deactivated time bubbles, stepping inside, doing something to the intricate circuitry and controls, then the time bubble disappeared.

"Who was it, Chuck?" Imra asked.

"Computo's best guess, based on height, apparent mass, and movement? Laurel Kent."

"I don't understand," Garth said, getting angry. "Why would Laurel steal a time bubble? The Substitutes have full access to our technology."

"Maybe she didn't want to log a proper request," Imra said, frowning, deep in thought.

Garth looked at his wife, concerned. Her hunches were usually right, and always meant trouble. "Imra?"

"Chuck, did Computo log her destination?"

"Checking - yes. She's... she's heading for the late twentieth century."

"I thought Brainy said that was impossible," Garth said. "That the Crisis began the time storms that ripped through the late twentieth and most of the twenty-first centuries. That heading back to that era was nothing short of suicide."

"We'll need to talk to Brainy, then," Chuck said, but his face was doubtful.

"He's in seclusion, isn't he?" Imra asked.

"Already?" Garth demanded. "The anniversary is still days away."

"You know he's taking it worse and worse every year," Chuck said.

"That's what comes of falling in love with a woman a thousand years dead," Garth answered ruthlessly. "Get him out of his quarters, Chuck. We need to figure out what's going on."


End file.
